The Essential Checklist To Promoting Your Business On Facebook

Social Media Week is a leading news platform and worldwide conference that curates and shares the best ideas and insights into social media and technology's impact on business, society, and culture.

As a business owner, you probably understand the importance of an online presence. You’re familiar with the growing need to create a website, start a blog and establish your brand on social media. In fact, you know that smart business owners are using Facebook to grow website traffic and increase sales.

But are you using this knowledge to effectively promote your business? According to recent reports, half of the world’s population is now online, and over 2 billion of these are active Social Media users. With such statistics, there is hardly a limit to the number of people your business can reach online.

Enter Facebook.

Of all social networks, Facebook is the largest platform with 1.3 billion people using it on a daily basis. This number increases to over 2 billion active users in a month. And in the US alone, 79% of internet users have an active Facebook account and 68% of these are adults.

While the numbers don’t guarantee Facebook success for your business, they present a playing field of growth opportunities. If you follow the right steps, map out a plan and allow the numbers to guide you, Facebook can be great for your business.

Here is a checklist you need to cross out when promoting your business on Facebook.

1. Is the Page User-Friendly?

A Facebook business page is like a website or a blog. If it doesn’t look appealing or isn’t simple enough to pass a message in mere seconds, people will abandon it. This means losing potential followers and probable customers. So ensure the page is friendly to the user.

Since Facebook already has a predetermined layout depending on your business type, this task should be simple. Take note of:

Cover Photo: Get creative based on your products or services, but avoid too much text in the image.

Profile photo: This is the image users will see adjacent to your posts, ads, messages, and comments. Ensure it’s clear and memorable.

Custom Tabs: These allow you to promote a service outside of Facebook. It can be a link to your business website or registration for events among others.

Call to Action (CTA) Button: Like in Customizable tabs, the CTA button allows you to prompt page visitors to take an action.

2. Have a Plan for What You Want to Achieve

A well mapped out plan is what will differentiate the success of your business promotion efforts from failure. It acts as a guide for all your daily posts, providing a detailed account of what to publish, when to publish and the why.

Importantly, your plan (or Facebook content calendar) should factor in your business’ target market, specific goals and type of content. Specific goals could be to get more likes and shares or converting users to buyers.

3. Track your Facebook Sage Statistics

Through Facebook insights, you’re able to understand how your page is performing by tracking the number of active users as well as the time they’re online. You’re also able to tell which promotional efforts are working and which ones aren’t.

And through this information, you’re able to effectively make three major decisions:

The type of content to publish

How many times to post in a week and which days, specifically

Best time of day to publish posts

As you keep tracking the insights, you’re able to establish a regular pattern that ensures maximum reach.

4. Maintain Consistency in Posting

If you’re not consistent on the day and time of publishing, type of content and the overall brand message, you lose followers and customers alike. Consistency is the most important factor in establishing a brand that customers love. It shapes the perceptions people have for your brand.

So the more consistent you’re in your posts, the more relatable and credible you become. And the more this happens, the larger the number of loyal followers and customers buying from you. With 90% of loyal customers buying from an online brand they trust and spending 60% more, you can’t ignore consistency in Facebook posts.

5. Focus on Visuals More Than the Text

As technology advances to accommodate IoT, VR, AR, Machine Learning and other advancements, people’s attention span is deteriorating. But it’s no one’s fault. When content is matched with pictures or video, people will remember 65% of the information 2 days later and only 10% of information without visuals.

Based on this, more people are using videos on social media, with 74% of marketers in 2016 using visual assets alongside content. And if this isn’t enough, a report by Cisco projects that video traffic will account for 80% of all consumer internet traffic by 2019. So why not get onboard this visual train now?

Leverage visual by creating more videos, photos, infographics/video graphics, and slideshows. If you’re not sure what to document in your videos, case studies and tutorials on how to use your product or services will be appreciated.

6. Keep an Eye for Page Reviews

Many internet users today use reviews as part of the decision-making process before making a purchase for product or service. That’s why case studies work to increase sales for a business, as they’re an account of a user’s success.

So if you have bad reviews on your page, know they might be barring you from achieving your Facebook goals. And lack of reviews is as detrimental as bad reviews. Make it possible for visitors to leave a review on the page.

In Conclusion; Engage, Engage & Engage

32% of Facebook users engage with brands regularly and 69% of customers want to be recognized by brands. From a simple comment, like, reply to a tag on posts, engage users on Facebook for the maximum promotion effect. After all, your promotion goal is to build a loyal following you can convert into customers.

Ayodeji Onibalusi is the founder and CEO at Effective Inbound Marketing, a digital marketing agency with 8 years experience in online PR and branding for businesses of all sizes.

Learn the latest trends, insights and best practices from the brightest minds in media and technology. Sign up for SMW Insider to watch full-length sessions from official Social Media Week conferences live and on-demand.

Ayodeji Onibalusi

CEO, Effective Inbound Marketing

Newsletter Subscription

Get the latest insights, trends and best practices from today's leading industry voices.

Conferences News & UpdatesWeekly Digest of News & Insights

Watch SMW Live

SMW Insider is a premium video platform that streams more than 180+ hours of talks, presentations, and interviews from leading industry experts.